Parallel Universe
by Strider101
Summary: Gaea has messed with time and thrown Percy and the mythological world into a parallel universe.
1. Two Strangers

Percy and I were having a great day at the fireworks. Since there hadn't really been time for the 4th of July fireworks in preparation for the Second Titan War, we decided to have a day at the end of August.

We were all having a really great time. Some people went swimming while others just sat up and looked at the stars with their dates. It was nice. Almost too nice. I should've known not to jinx myself.

Suddenly, a harsh blue light appeared and we all gasped, startled. The Aphrodite girls screamed. Two figures stepped out of the harsh blue light.

"Hurry, this won't last much longer!" the figure on the left said.

"Listen!" said the other. "Something has happened. It's Gaea who made all this mess! You have to stop it before it's too late!"

Percy stepped forward. "Who are you? What are you talking about?"

The guy on the left looked towards Percy, and for some reason, I felt a chill that reached into my bones.

"I'm talking about your future. Something terrible has happened. We've done all we can. Now it's up to you to do your part."

The two figures stepped out of the blue light, and onto the warm sand of the beach. I could now see them clearly. It was a guy and a girl in Roman armor. They were both tall and strong, but there was something else about them, about the way they stood, like they had seen to much.

"Go." said the boy, looking directly at Percy, his eyes shades in his Roman helmet. Who were these guys?

Percy looked at me and gulped, and for a moment, all I could see was his face, and then . . . I don't know what happened. We were all standing on the beach. All of the campers looked stunned, so I knew something had happend. The blue light and the kids were gone, but something felt wrong. There were no fireworks in the sky, which looked threateningly dark. There was not a sound. You could have heard a needle drop. Chiron galloped towards us.

"What has happened?" he asked, looking at all of us.

"They told us to stop Gaea's mess." Percy said darkly. "Something about the future."

"That's crazy." I said. "No, one meddles with the future, not even the gods."

Chiron looked extremely worried. "All of you go back to your cabins. The best thing we can do is figure out what to do in the morning. All of you to bed."

Oh, we figured out what happened in the morning all right.

Percy's POV

I woke up to loud screams. I lay in bed, wondering what I must have dreamt to make the dream so real, and then I realized they were coming from outside. I grabbed my coat and dashed outside, as many of the campers did. The border patrol campers were screaming their heads off, coming towards the clearing. The harpies were chasing them with their fangs close behind the campers. What in the name of Poseidon? What was their problem? They usually never acted like this. I took out my sword and ran towards them. Usually they would have run away, but they didn't seem frightened of me. I quickly vaporized them. They screamed, showering into dust. The campers looked at me, stunned. Chiron had galloped out with his curlers in his tial and was speechless.

Suddenly, there was a flash of light and the god Hermes appeared. He looked frightened, and that frightened us even more. What could be prowerful enough to make a god scared? What was happening? Something horrible was in the air, a very dark evil. Hermes steeped towards me.

"None of us gods are sure what has happened. Something terrible. We think it might have to do with Gaea. Some of her monsters are stirring, coming back to life. You heroes have to find out what's going on. Go find Nico, he will know what to do."

With that, he dissapeared into a flash of golden light. Nico? What did he mean find Nico?

I looked towards Chiron. He spoke out to the campers.

"All counselors in the big house. Now." He spoke with such authority I was shocked.

I headed to the big house and the rest of the counselors caught up with me. Annabeth's face was white. "Did you see the guy at the beach yesterday? He was so . . . frightening."

"Yeah." I said. "Something about that girl, too."

We went inside and crammed ourselves around the ping pong table.

Chiron was in his weelchair, waiting for us.

"Percy and the Athena cabin, find Nico. Aphrodite and Ares cabins will go into Manhatten and see if there's anything unuaual. Apollo and Hermes cabins, find any guides, nariads, tree nyphs, or gods that might be able to give us any information. All of the other cabins, stay here and be ready to react if anything goes wrong."

"Chiron-" I started to say.

"Percy," Chiron said, "I do not know what is happening, but whatever it is, it something evil and dangerous."

He turned around and went into his room.

Annabeth looked at me with fear in her eyes. All right, everybody dressed and ready." I said. It was going to be a long day.


	2. A Wounded World

Percy's POV

I was so glad no one complained; because where a son of Hades spends his free time I had no idea. Annabeth suggested we go to the nearest graveyard closest to us on Long Island. Nico had to have been there tons of times. It was still early in the morning when we got to the graveyard, and Annabeth ordered her siblings to look around. It was very unlikely that we would find any clues. Nico doesn't exactly tell anyone where he goes.

"Over here!" Malcolm said.

We all ran to where he was pointing. Malcolm had removed a rock and under it, there was a muddy packet. I took it and tried to get the mud off as best I could. All the campers huddled around me so they could see. It was a map of San Francisco.

"Well, now we know where to go." an Athena girl said.

"Wait a sec," I said. "We don't even know if this was Nico's."

"It doesn't seem like it's been there very long."

"And," Annabeth said, picking away grass. "there's a McDonald's toy right by it."

My face went red. "Fine. Let's go to San Francisco."

Two Hours Later

We walked _forever._ The Aphrodite and Ares cabins got to have the vans, all because of Drew's whining. Chiron was too tired to argue with her, and there weren't enough Pegasi for all of us. The best we could do was pray to the gods for help. Help soon came. Soon, in the distance there was a glint of light. It had to have been a car, but it wasn't moving. When we came to it, it was a large van.

It had barely processed in my mind that this was from the gods when I said, "I'm driving." There were tons of protests. I ran to the driver's side and hopped in before anyone else got to it and started the engine. Annabeth got in next to me, smiling.

Much Later

When we reached the first trickle of houses down the road, we knew something was wrong. Houses were abandoned. Spider webs were everywhere on them. They had been abandoned for some time. Dead animal carcasses were strewn across the road, and I swerved to avoid them. Who could do this? When we came close to the city, there were hardly any cars in the road. The few that were drove like maniacs. The city didn't have half as many people as I remember. I had to find out what was going on. I stopped the car and we all got out. Annabeth had tears in her eyes. I didn't notice, but I did too.

"What happened here?" she asked.

Someone swerved to a stop in front of an apartment building, got out, slammed the door, and made a bee-line to the front door. I stopped a lady.

"What happened here?" I asked.

She looked at me as if I were crazy. "You shouldn't stay outdoors for long. Not with a group as big as this."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, but the woman was already hurrying away, pulling her hood up.

The Athena campers looked around sadly.

"They said Gaea messed with time." Annabeth said sadly. "She messed with time and now everything's wrong."

"We have to-to- I stopped.

My city. They had put my city to sleep once before, but know they had been put into a state of terror. Not just this city, but probably many more. My mother.

"I know a place where we can find answers." I said, and ran down the street.

Annabeth seemed to know where I was headed. She and the other campers followed close behind me, and in no time, I was standing before the building.

"Percy, she might not-she might be different- Annabeth tried to explain to me.

I ran inside. Of course, there was nobody there. Papers were strewn about. Everything was dusty. Half of us crammed into the elevator and went up.

When I came to the front of my door, I hesitated. Nobody said anything. When I tried the door, it was unlocked. I pushed it open and we all winced when it creaked. I stepped inside, my foot crunching on paper. My mother peeked her head around the corner with a kitchen knife in her hands. I was shocked by how tired she looked. She looked at me and dropped the knife.

"Percy." she breathed. "It's you."

"It's me." I smiled. She looked at me as if she hadn't seen me in years.

"Oh, I knew you would come back." she said. "I wish you would stop hanging out with those friends of yours. They're a bad influence." 

"What friends?" I asked. "Mom, something's gone wrong. I don't know what happened to make it lead up to this. Can you tell me when things started going wrong? Where was I when all of this happened? Please understand me. This might seem strange."

My mom sat on the couch and started to talk like she had wanted to tell me this for a long time. "I thought you were dead. After I took you to Camp Half-Blood for the first time you changed. The years went on, and you barely visited me. Then you found . . . other friends. I told you to stay away from them, but you wouldn't listen. Then you started saying how Gaea would save us from the gods, and that the gods planned to destroy the world. I-I still don't know if I believed you or not. But then all the monsters came, and you said it was okay. Then they started killing everybody. It's every man for himself. Why? How did it come to this Percy?"

I stared at her, willing myself not to look grief stricken for her sake. By then all of the Athena campers had arrived. Some looked unsure whether they should be here or not. Some were in the hall. The Athena campers were really good when it came to being in control of your emotions, but a lot of them looked scared.

"What about my mother?" one asked. "What if she's dead?"

Annabeth turned her head. "We're going to fix this."

My mother stared at her with wide eyes. "What do you mean? Annabeth, forgive me, but I've never seen you look like this before. You're usually in all that dark clothes and make-up."

Annabeth stared at my mom. I closed my eyes. Whatever had happened to the world it was going to change back. I took her hands in mine. "Mom, whatever is happening, we're going to stop it. It's going to be like it was. I promise."

There was a noise coming from my room. A boy stepped out. He lifted his head and every single one of us minus my mom gasped. It was Luke.


	3. He's back

Percy's POV

We all pulled out our swords, and Luke did too. My mother stood up angrily. Annabeth looked like she might faint.

"Stop it, all of you!" my mother said.

Annabeth opened her mouth and looked like she might speak.

"What are you- I swallowed and tried to gain control of my voice. "What are you doing back? Why are you in my home?"

"I might ask you the same thing." Luke said. It was weird to hear his voice.

"Something horrible has happened." I said. "And I'm here to fix it."

"What is it this time?" he asked. "Haven't you done enough damage?"

"Look," I said. "This wasn't meant to happen. A day ago, we got a message saying that Gaea has messed with time and turned the world into complete chaos. None of this, the gods being evil and all, was meant to happen."

Luke scowled. "Do you think I'd fall for something as stupid as that?"

"I swear upon the River Styx it's true." I said. "But what are you doing in my house?"

"Your mother was the only one who would let me use her apartment as a safe house after I found out Camp Half-Blood wasn't the camp I thought it was going to be. What have you been doing all these years? You don't really seem to have cared much about her."

"Luke." Annabeth said in a soft voice. "You were dead. You took care of me, but then you turned evil. You . . . you welcomed Kronos. You tried to kill us many times. You were good in the end. I can't believe you're alive."

Luke stared at Annabeth. "It's true, I took care of you. But then we made it to Camp you and Thalia just weren't the same anymore. After Percy came you welcomed evil. I believe you now. The real Annabeth probably doesn't even remember how she used to be. Percy-

Luke looked at me.

"Percy, you are . . . you are evil. You wear the face of evil. The gods ask you to do their bidding and you do it. You spread terror among everyone. I can't believe . . . you're so different. Usually . . . oh, this is all wrong. I'll help you to make things right."

"Wait," Malcolm said. "You don't even know what it's like in our world. Not that it isn't, but how do you know our world is better that yours?"

Luke looked at Malcolm square in the eye. "Because it has to be."

I had so many feelings inside of me. An old jealousy that had been inside of me for many years boiled in me again. Luke was back. I didn't want to think of what might happen. If we fixed time, Luke wouldn't be alive anymore. As much as I never liked Luke, even now, I didn't want Annabeth to be hurt. I was angry at Gaea. She had no right to mess with time. I had to make things right again.

"First things first." I said. "Hermes-Hermes from our world-said to find Nico. I wonder what Nico knows that would help us."

Luke turned pale. "What?" I said. "What do you know?"

"Nico di Angelo is the one who discovered the Romans. When you came to the Roman Camp, and Jason came to the Greek Camp, you both combined the two camps to make a whole army to do the gods' evil work."

"There's a Roman Camp?" Annabeth said. "That's impossible."

"No." Luke said. "They are very much still around."

How could there be a Roman Camp? Anger boiled inside of me as I realized that the gods knew about this, and they didn't even tell us.

"Why haven't the gods told us about the Roman Camp?" I said.

"The gods wanted to keep you separate until the time came when they wanted the mortals to bow down to them once more." Luke explained. "They wanted to wait for the right moment."

"We need to find Nico and get to the Roman Camp." I said. "He knows it better than anybody. We'll leave in the morning."

"I'm coming with you." Luke said. "For years, I was one of the only ones who wanted to stand up to the gods. There were a few demigods and minor gods out there who didn't want to bow down to the twelve major gods, but they couldn't do anything about it. If there are two worlds here, and one of them is good, then we would have more than enough support on our side to stand up against the gods and make things right."

I didn't like the idea of having him come along, but I nodded. Nobody wanted to tell him that in the good world, Luke was dead. My thoughts went to the gods. As much as I hated a lot of them, I just couldn't imagine them being evil. I fought for them. My father . . . I didn't even know what he was like. What the evil side of him was like. And me. What was I like? Luke said I was evil. My mother hinted at the same thing. I was scared. I hoped I could get through this just like any one of my adventures. But this adventure was so much different.


	4. The Drawing

I slept in my room on the floor. I let an Athena boy take the bed. A couple more slept on the floor, and the rest slept in the hallway. They wanted to give my mom some space, and, also, they didn't want to be near Luke, who slept on the living room couch. I couldn't go to sleep. So many things had gone wrong. Only a day ago all of the campers were having a wonderful time at the beach. The war had just ended. But we, being demigods, couldn't even have a small break. As I stared around my room, I realized how different my other self was. Nothing hung on the walls. My dresser had little chinks on the wood. The room was completely colorless. The drapes were black.

In the morning, I wanted to go through the drawers and see what I could find. I found sleep soon enough.

In my dream, I was using my powers to destroy buildings. Huge waves came and washed over them. The gods were floating in the air above me, laughing and gloating at the terrified mortals. Annabeth, Grover and my other friends were there, too. They had their weapons out and were chasing terrified mortals with them. A mortal guy had fallen down in front of me and I stepped towards him, raising my sword and laughing.

I woke up, breathing hard. That dream was one of the scariest I had had in my life. What was I doing? I wasn't willingly trying to hurt someone, was I? I shook my head and wondered whether or not I should tell Annabeth. No. She had enough on her mind right now.

I was the first on up, all the other boys were snoring. I stood up and started opening up drawers. All of them seemed empty. When I opened the last drawer, there wasn't anything inside it but a single piece of paper. I turned it over and there was a drawing on it in pencil. It was a little boy. Just a boy, standing there in the middle of the white paper. It was drawn by a very young hand. It was a stick figure, but it still spoke. The corners of his mouth were turned down. My other self must have drawn it. What kind of person must I have been, to draw such a sad and lonely person? How did that boy come to have 'the face of evil' as Luke had said?

"What are you doing?" a voice said from behind me. I jumped. It was Luke. He stepped into my room.

"Nothing."

"I know what that was." Luke said. He took the paper from me, and stared at it. Then he handed it back to me.

"I would keep this if I were you." Luke said.

I frowned. "Why?"

Luke shifted his feet. "I don't know. I just . . . feel like you should have it. After all, you drew it. You might want to get to know yourself better."

I wasn't sure what he meant, but I was afraid to ask. Behind us, the Athena kids started waking up. I went into the hallway. "All right, everybody up." I said. "We've got a long day of traveling ahead of us."

I went back into my apartment and knocked tentatively on my mother's door. "Mom? It's me." I said.

Her door opened and I saw how sad her eyes were. "You're leaving now."

"Yes."

"Be safe." she said. "Promise me that when this is finished you'll come and visit me."

I didn't know what to say to that. I didn't know if I would make it out of this alive, or if we would succeed and this world would no longer exist. But something told me she didn't care about that. Even if we succeeded, I would still come and visit her. I made that a promise.

"I will mom." I said.

She hugged me. "Thank you." Then she laughed.

"What?" I asked.

"I think this is the first time you've let me hug you." she said.

I smiled. "I'll make things right." I said.

When I went into the hallway. Annabeth, Luke and the other Athena campers were waiting for me. They all waited to hear what I would say.

"Let's go to San Francisco." I said. "We need to find Nico."

"I'll drive." A boy named Bobby said.

"Okay."

We all got out of the apartment building and this time there were no mortals outside. I tried not to think what might've happened to them. We all piled into the van. Luke was sitting in the back by the window. I sat by Annabeth. Occasionally some of us had to get out and push away overturned cars as we continued to head west.

Nico's POV

I slept on a large tree branch in the woods somewhere south of Camp Jupiter. I wanted to talk to my sister again. My father had made me swear on the River Styx not to tell any of my Greek friends about Camp Jupiter, and any Romans about the Greeks. I understood.

When I woke up in the morning, something definitely did not feel right. There was a rotten smell in the air. Everything felt different. The world seemed . . . darker than I remembered. I slowly got down from my tree branch. I would just continue to Camp Jupiter. Still, something did not feel right. I tried to Iris-message Percy, but for some reason, the connection didn't work. Maybe Iris was taking a day off. It didn't make me feel any better.

I reached the top of the hill and looked down on Camp Jupiter. What I saw would probably be engraved on my mind as long as I was alive, which, I realized, might not be that long. I quickly ran back down the hill and hid behind a large rock, hoping no one saw me. What was going on? I slid onto the ground, breathing hard. I realized I couldn't hear anything. Nothing. Not even the mortals down in the valley. What _was _going on?


	5. The Two Sides of Reyna

Nico's POV

What I saw in the valley will always be etched on my memory, unless forcefully taken away. What I saw was so horrible, I can't even begin to describe what I felt, only what I saw. In the clearing, in front of the barracks, were poles with skeletons dangling from them. Demigods were in terrifying black armor with helmets pulled over their faces. They were ordering monsters about and unleashing them into the wild at the edge of the clearing. I couldn't see the gods, but I knew where they were. The principia radiated dark, evil energy. Large, terrifying statues of the gods lined the streets. There were no children about from what I could see, only officers from the Greek and Roman armies.

A fight broke out and the demigods circled around them, chanting. I saw the Roman praetor come and break it up, but not before smacking them both and kicking them in the faces, sending them tumbling in the dirt. The praetor took of his helmet and wiped his forehead with his arm. When their arm came down, I gasped. It was Reyna. Her eyes were so dark. That's when I stumbled backwards and ran back down the hill.

The next day, when I had finally recovered, I went into the city. There was hardly anyone about, and those that were, hurried to get to shelter before the day was over. I found an abandoned hotel and slept there, keeping a watchful eye on the Roman Camp and gaining information over the next few weeks. I could only hope that my Greek friends had found out what was going on and were on their way here.

During my second week in the hotel, something took me by surprise. I was looking around for any mortal who could give me any information on what was going on, but whenever I approached someone they ran away. I could have stopped them, but they all seemed so terrified, as if any moment might be their last.

I trudged down an alley, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, which wasn't hard, when I heard the crackle of glass. I kept going, pretending I hadn't heard anything. When I heard a crunch of glass behind me I was sure I was being followed. I turned the corner, walking slowly so that my stalker could catch up. When I was sure he was close I stepped behind a school building and waited. They came around the corner and I lashed my arm out, pinning them against the building. I released my hold quickly enough.

"_Reyna?"_

"Wait." Reyna said. "The first words I said to you when I first met you?"

"I uh, you said, 'Your trust is what binds you to being a Roman.'"

Reyna sighed. "I had to make sure it was the real you. When I saw you in the hotel I was almost sure you were really you."

"I'm just trying to find out what's going on." I said. I tried not to think of the other Reyna I had seen down at Camp Jupiter.

Reyna nodded. "It's been such a disastrous few weeks. It started out to be a normal day, everyone rushed to complete their training, when a whole army just invaded. Several of us were lost, my sister included. I was pushed back into the woods, but managed to escape. You were the only one I could find who was still alive."

"An army?" I said. "Who were they?"

"I don't know. They wore Roman and Greek armor, but they changed it so that it looked terrifying, with what looked like blood running down the arms. They were barbaric. One of them looked like you, Nico. I've been so . . . so anxious these past couple of weeks. I was alone and I thought everyone was dead."

"They might not be." I said. "We just have to find out where they all are. I can . . . get reinforcements."

Reyna studied me warily, and I knew I'd crossed into the danger zone. Things were already bad, and Reyna needed to know about the Greek Camp. So I told her. Everything. When I was finished she didn't speak. When she did, she said. "Let's get into shelter."

So we headed back to the hotel. We were still trudging through the city when we heard a car, a single car that was heading towards us. Reyna and I looked at each other and ran into the street. It was a van. A black van and it was heading straight towards Camp Jupiter. We waived our hands and I shouted, "Stop!" I hoped we wouldn't get run over. The van came to a stop, and it suddenly occurred to me that the bad guys might be in this car. To late now. Someone got out, and I was so relieved I could've cried. Well, maybe not, but I was still relieved. It was Percy. He grinned when he saw me. It was so good to see my friend again. When he was there, everything seemed reassured. The Athena cabin got out behind him. Annabeth came forward and hugged me.

"You're here." I said. "Thank the gods. You know what's happened, don't you?"

"Yes." Percy said. "During the fireworks two strangers came and said that Gaea has messed with time. We found out that she created a parallel universe and trapped us here. We've got to stop whatever's happening before things get worse."

That's when I noticed the boy at the back of the crowd. "My gods." I said. "Luke."

"Do I know you?" he said. I swallowed. "Uh, no not really."

Reyna stepped up. I had completely forgotten about the dirty, pale Roman praetor.

"Greek friends, apparently Nico has been keeping secrets from us. Nevertheless, we must work together to stop this . . . unfortunate problem that has destroyed my people. Will you help me find them?"

"Of course." Percy said.

"I think I know where to start." I said. "I saw some Roman prisoners, Romans from our world, being herded into the principia."

Reyna sighed. "The principia has a large clearing around it. It won't be easy to get inside."

Annabeth smiled. "We have the whole Athena cabin here. We'll think of something."

I looked at the sky. "We should go. The sun is going down." I glanced warily at Luke and then climbed into the car. Reyna looked extremely uncomfortable but she came in after me. I directed the driver to the hotel, and we all stepped inside just as the sun went down. We all stopped, sensing the change in the air. The wind got louder and whistled through the cracks in the doors, and the branches from the trees cast long shadows on the walls. We all got instinctively closer together as I led the way to my temporary camp.

I had scrounged enough food so that if we got caught in the hotel, we would have enough food for a couple of days. We all crashed, but someone never stayed alone in a room for safety. We were all scared of the many monsters that know roamed the streets at night. Some world, I thought.


	6. Meeting the New Luke

Annabeth's POV

I couldn't sleep. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't. I decided to go out on the roof for some air. I knew it was probably dangerous, but I didn't care. I pulled the blankets off of me, put on my sneakers, and went up the stairs as quietly as I could. When I pulled open the door and stepped outside, a blast of cold air hit me. I shivered and zipped my coat up.

I soon became aware that I was not alone. I pulled out my dagger and said, "Who's there?" Luke put his hands up in surrender and stepped out of the shadows.

"Oh, it's you." I said. I couldn't quite keep my voice from catching at the end, though. I'd already lost Luke once, and to think that there was another Luke, well, I just wanted to ignore him and remember the true Luke that I knew.

"Yes, it's me." Luke said. "I still don't think I quite understand the whole parallel universe thing, but man, if there was one . . . .well, it would explain why you haven't taken your eyes off me ever since I showed up. I've seen the look in your eyes. It doesn't end up well for me, in the other world, does it? I guess if you're not evil in the other world, then I am. What happens? To me, I mean."

"I-I can't." I said. "It might alter things that aren't meant to be altered."

Luke looked down. "I die, don't I? I know. I've seen it in your eyes and in everyone else's."

Then he smiled. "I guess that's the best thing I can do. Die."

"That's not true!" I said. "You died a hero. You saved Olympus."

Luke laughed. "So I guess the Olympians are good, too?"

"Don't talk like that." I scolded. "You sound just like-

I looked down. Luke looked at me sympathetically.

"Annabeth, I understand the hurt you felt because of me. If this is a parallel universe, then I must have left you like you left me. I understand how you felt. I'm sorry this had to happen to both of us."

"Me too."

We both looked up at the stars, and I thought about how in the Second Titan War, the odds were differently not in our favor. But we held out.

I didn't have any dreams, which was good. We all got up and rolled up our sleeping bags. When situations like this happened, we always packed in case we needed to leave in a hurry. After a breakfast of cereal without the milk, we all gathered around a small table. I could tell Percy had dreams. He always did when something like this happened. He looked tired, and I wondered what he dreamt about, but I was afraid to ask.

Reyna and Nico both filled us all in on what Camp Jupiter looked like and the areas surrounding the Camp.

"We can't enter the front entrance." Reyna was saying. "We would be too easy to spot. There is a side entrance through the woods, though. Only a praetor would be able to spot it."

Reyna made me jealous. She reminded me of me. She was smart, too.

"It won't be easy to get to the principia." Nico said. "We'd have to cross the clearing, and it's a large clearing."

That's when the idea came to me. A brilliant, ostentatious, magnificent idea. I was so proud of myself.

I humbly began, "I think I have an idea."

Percy smiled, and he slowly turned his head to face me.

"Do you?" he said.

I tried not to blush and tossed my head. "Yes." I said. I turned towards Reyna. "Everyone gets a turn to do patrol, am I right?"

"Yes." Reyna said warily. "Everyone must to their share for patrolling duty."

"Well, obviously ambushing every single person who passes the woods for patrol won't be any good. That would just arouse suspicion."

"Annabeth, what are you getting at?" Percy said nervously. I knew Percy hated my ideas, but they worked, and he knew it.

"Well." I said in my best strategic voice. "We won't ambush _everybody. _Just our counterparts."

All of my siblings nodded in understanding. Some of the looked uncomfortable, and I couldn't blame them, but it was an idea. Reyna looked at me and smiled. I thought that if we weren't in the situation that we were in, we might just become friends. Percy, being Percy, still looked confused.

"What in the name of Poseidon are you talking about?"he said.

"We can ambush them, knock them out, steal their armor, and walk to the principia as one of them. We would pretend to be them, find the prisoners, help them escape, and then work out what to do from there. If all of us were to be in the places of our counterparts, we would have the advantage of attacking them from the inside."

Percy tilted his head to the side. "Is that the only way?" I nodded.

"Of course, it won't be easy just flipping a switch and becoming someone else." Adriana said.

"Yeah." Malcolm said. "We have to be patient and watch them from a distance; get to know how they act."

"But we don't have enough time for all that." Nico said.

My siblings smiled, waiting for Malcolm to speak again. Children of Athena don't like their plans to be looked down upon. It makes us _very _angry.

Malcolm looked Nico square in the eye and said, "We have to be _patient, _as I was saying earlier_. _If we move to fast they'll suspect something. They have to be absolutely sure that we are _their _people from this world."

"Right." Percy said. "We need a safe place to watch them without them noticing us. Nico, do you know of somewhere?"

Nico nodded, though he still looked angry about being put down by Malcolm. "There's a place close to the city, but still close enough that we'd be able to get a clear view of Camp Jupiter. You'd be able to see the front of the principia from there."

Percy nodded. "Good. We shouldn't all go at once, just to be safe. I'll go with you Nico, and Annabeth?"

I nodded without question. I loved his leadership abilities, even if he could be a Seaweed Brain sometimes. I always wondered how someone that smart could be so obtuse at times, but I didn't care that he was like that.

Percy had chosen five more people to come with us, and that's how the next couple of days went. Group by group, we all went to the rock where Nico had told us he looked down on the Camp once before, and group by group we each got more uncomfortable with my brilliant plan. We saw ourselves as we never wanted to see us. We saw the worst of each of us.

**Please please review and tell me how I can make this story better!**


	7. Magic Tailoring

I guess I should tell you what we saw in the Roman Camp. It wasn't pretty. I'm not going to talk about the Percy Jackson that I saw, as that really freaked me out and I have no desire to repeat what I saw. Annabeth was almost as horrible as me. She would go up to someone and pretend to be all sweet on them, and then she'd suddenly twist their arm and tell them off for not being in training. Reyna, well, if she heard so much as a whisper from someone as she went by she'd punch them in the face.

Nico was like a living shadow, if he wasn't that already. If someone went out of line in front of him, he'd just look at them for the longest time.

Thalia, well Thalia was mad. I mean mad. I might add that in this Parallel universe, she wasn't with the hunters. I didn't even know if there even _was _a hunt anymore. When we first saw her, she was pretty scary. She would go around scaring people and then laugh hysterically. That made our Thalia nervous. None of us were very good actors.

Reyna pointed over to the aqueduct. "You can use that to your advantage, Percy. You could block it off from the demigods on the other side, the ones in the-

barracks." I finished. Reyna and the others stared at me.

"How did you know where they were?" Reyna asked me.

I wish I hadn't opened my big mouth.

"I must have heard it before." I said.

"We've never mentioned anything outside of the principia area." Reyna said. "I've seen the way you've looked around Camp Jupiter. "It's almost like you've been here before."

"You did come here in my world." Luke said.

None of us said anything to that.

We decided to head back to our camp.

Nico was waiting for us when we returned. He had a grim smile on his face. That always made me nervous.

"It's time." he said.

"Tomorrow?" I asked.

He nodded. "So I'd suggest a good night's sleep."

I came inside and found Thalia eating all of the fruit loops from the hotel's supply.

"What did I do today?" Thalia asked. "Man, I'm a loony. Can't believe I'll have to act like that tomorrow."

"You can do it." I said.

Thalia glared at me. "What's that supposed to mean?"

I decide it might be good idea to get away from Thalia and turn in early. The lights in the hall were off, and I stumbled into my temporary room. Before I knew it, I was asleep.

I dreamed I was on a mountain of ice. I was fighting alongside my friends. We were fighting a hopeless battle. The blue energy coming from the earth in front of us was getting bigger and bigger. I knew I had to stop it. A voice from the ground spoke in my mind.

"You think you can stop this. No, demigod. If you want to stop this, you will have to start from the beginning. You won't survive. I will show you how hopeless it is."

I was in the principia, and the gods were all talking and laughing. They were sitting on couches in the middle of the room, being served grapes and cheese from servants. I couldn't see the prisoners, but I soon found out where they were. I heard a loud moan from downstairs, and Apollo shouted, "Shut up!"

Then I saw someone enter the room. It was a Roman praetor, but it wasn't Reyna. He gave me the same spine tingling feeling I got when I saw the guy on the beach step out of the blue light. He stood there quietly in the corner, waiting to be noticed. I knew who it was. I'd seen him lurking around Camp before.

Nico shook me awake. "Do you always talk in your sleep?" he said. Then he saw my face. "Percy, what is it?"

"Nothing." I said. "What's for breakfast?"

"Let's see. There's Bran Flakes left. Thalia demolished all the fruit loops."

"Fine." I said.

As I was eating, Thalia filled me in on what we were doing.

"From yesterday night's patrol we got me, Annabeth, and you. From last night's, we got Nico, Reyna, and some Fauna camper. Definitely a Roman. We also got an Iris camper."

Thalia propped her boots up on the table. "Excited?" she asked me, a fake smile on her face.

"Yeah. Have we got all the armor and stuff?"

"Yep." Thalia said.

Annabeth came in, and I swear, I don't know if I've ever been more surprised in my life. She was wearing a leather jacket and black leather pants. She wore knee high boots and a ton of mascara over her eyes. She smiled.

"How do I look?"

"Uh, you look . . . well, actually you look-

"Don't even tell me." Annabeth said.

Oookay. Annabeth sat down, and a Hecate camper came in.

"Ready?" she asked Thalia and I. "I haven't done magic tailoring in a long time, but it worked for Annabeth."

"You've looked at out counterparts, seen what they look like?" I asked.

"Yep." she said. "Stand up, both of you."

Thalia and I did as we were told and shut our eyes. When we opened them, we looked like completely different people. I had on a long, black leather overcoat with leather pants and black boots.

Thalia was wearing similar clothing, but her hair looked longer and bedraggled. She had on a lot of mascara with long fingernails and pale skin.

Annabeth clapped her hands. "Bravo. You both look like Hades."

Nico glared at Annabeth.

"The place, Hades, I mean."

Nico came in with similar attire to mine. The Fauna and Elpis campers followed behind him. They bothe wore similat attire to Nico, but the Fauna camper had on silver Roman armor with a Roman helmet.

"We should go." Annabeth said.

Reyna came in. "Good luck, and be careful. Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong."

That really boosted our moral support.

"Remember the plan." I said to everybody. "Whatever happens, stick to the plan."


	8. The Prisoners

Reyna's POV

"My lords." I called. "We have our borders secure, there have been no outside disturbances in the area. Luke Castellan is still nowhere to be seen."

Lady Aphrodite waved her hand. "He'll stay in hiding if he knows what's good for him."

I bowed and went outside. If the Stoll brothers fought one more time I was going to run a sword through them both and feed them to the wolves. Where were Jason and Percy? I needed to talk with them both. It was time discipline around here changed. I was getting sick of Thalia. If you want to do it the easy way, just run a sword through them. But she liked to toy with them, and it was really putting my ego off. I looked over at the edge of the clearing. Ah, there was Percy. I never said it to him, but he could really terrify me sometimes. He was walking over here with someone. Who was that with him? Another prisoner? Maybe that's why he didn't come back from the patrol. Gods. Luke Castellan was with him, chained by the neck, and he was being lugged along by Percy.

I ran into the principia. "My Lords, Percy Jackson is back. He's brought someone with him!"

"Another prisoner?" Lord Mars raised his eyebrows.

Percy had come in with Castellan. "Lords, I brought you a prize."

Lord Hermes slowly got up. "Luke. How nice of you to come back. At last we have you. You'll be spending the rest of your life in the dungeons with the other prisoners. Percy, take him downstairs."

Percy bowed, and I watched as he left. Something felt different about him. Something . . . . no. I dismissed the thought.

Luke's POV

Percy was doing a great job. I was glad the gods didn't kill me. Percy took me downstairs and let out a sigh of relief. The gods had bought it. It was up to me now to help the prisoners. Downstairs was dark and silent. Torches lined the walls, and the light just barely touched the bars of the prison. An occasional whimper would sound out, and soft murmuring. As the eyes followed us, so did gasps. What they saw was Percy Jackson pushing along someone they knew to be dead. A red-headed girl came up to the bars and whispered Percy's name. She had green eyes and dirty pants that had been written all over on in marker. I sensed other things, too. I sensed God power. Maybe the gods from Percy's world had come into these horrible cells to comfort their children. Maybe. It was hard for me to believe because I had known the gods to be become, cruel beings.

Shortly into the narrow hall there was a desk with paper and a pen wresting on it. A young guy was writing something, but he looked up when Percy approached. He quickly stood up. He looked afraid of Percy.

Percy slammed the chains holding me onto the desk, and pushed me so hard I fell onto the floor. Man, he was really pushing it to the limit. I had no idea.

Percy looked the guy square in the eye. "I have a very important prisoner here. Don't you think? Would you care to give him a cell?"

They guys eyes strayed over to me and they widened, if that was possible. "Luke Castellan? _You _captured Luke Castellan single handedl-

I'd never thought Percy would do this from the time I met him, but he did, and it shocked everyone around me as well. The prisoners stood up and put their hands to the bars as Percy lashed his hand out and struck the guy hard in the face.

"You dare question the praetor of the twelfth legion?" Percy said.

It took all my willpower not to gape. His lines were a little cheesy, but man was he really getting into character. All of the demigods in the cells put their hands over their mouths. Some of the gods raised their eyebrows in surprise.

Percy stepped towards the guard who was cowering, with blood dripping over his lip. "Give the prisoner a cell." The guard nodded quickly and we followed him deeper into the hallway. At the last cell, he stopped and opened it, and then stepped aside to let us through. Percy paused and looked at the guard. You can leave now. The guard nodded quickly, bowed and walked quickly back down the dark hallway.

Percy unlocked the chain around my neck.

"Luke, Percy?" a voice said in a whisper. Percy's head snapped up. "Katie?"

The shadow from the cell acoss from mine stood up and slowly walked over. She looked like a daughter of Demeter, or Ceres maybe. I thought I recognized her. Percy ran to the demigod.

"Yes, it's me, Katie. We've come to rescue you and all the other prisoners."

"Oh my gods." Katie said. "I thought you were dead. You have to get out of here. If they catch you-

"No need." I said. "We're gonna attack them from the inside. We've already got demigods from our side here at Camp Jupiter, disguised as one of them."

"Luke?" Katie said. "This is impossible. Everything that's happened, it isn't possible. Some of us were over at our parents' house when they just came and attacked us. The Romans.

"It's a long story." Percy said. "We're in a parallel universe. They've found out that they are sharing this world with their counterparts."

The girl from the cell beside me came over, too. She had mousy brown hair and a not-so-friendly look about her.

"What in Hades are you talking about? That's not possible." she said

Percy nodded. "Apparently it is, Clarisse. Gaea's work. You just have to be patient."

"Patient." Clarisse snorted. "I've been stuck in here for weeks, now. Give me a spear and I'm out of here."

"Not yet." Percy said. "Listen to my plan."

Back at the Hotel . . .

Percy's eyes snapped open. Annabeth looked around warily. Percy jerked his head over to the guard at the door of the basement, and Annabeth nodded. Percy stood up, his hands tied by ropes, and put them over the guard's neck, choking him. Thalia and Nico stood up.

"It's time we got out of here." Percy said.

**Please please review! i would love some advice!**


	9. Bodyguards

Percy's POV

After I had left Luke in his cell with the door unlocked, I walked slowly back to the stairs. I thought about how I had hit that guy. I was surprised at myself, but it gave me a sense of satisfaction that I just couldn't understand. The feeling came back again when I past the guard at the desk and found him cowering there. I recognized many of the Greek demigods who were my friends, but I couldn't acknowledge them in front of the guard. It was hot down there, and I was grateful to come back up the steps. I quickly skirted around the gods and hoped they wouldn't notice me. Unfortunately for me, someone else did.

"Where have you been?" said the girl I had just bumped into. She had brown hair and blue eyes with a brutal look on her face.

I pointed backwards. "I was, uh, I just came from-

"What are you doing alone? Praetor, I'm sorry, but you can't do this anymore. Please, understand."

I had no idea what she was talking about. "Um, of course I understand."

"Thank you." the girl said. "Now I have to give you all the session papers to sign. You have to sign a couple of things about treaties among the borders of the Titans and whatnot. And-

Her voice suddenly turned so shrill I almost jumped three feet in the air.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?' the girl roared to the unfortunate girl nearby. "THIS IS YOUR PRAETOR! DO YOU THINK I WOULDN'T NOTICE THAT YOU'RE STANDING ALMOST THREE FEET NEXT TO HIM?"

The girl looked frightened and embarrassed. She ran away.

The girl turned back to me. "Some people just don't know how to behave. I'm sorry, praetor, I should've seen that coming."

"Uh, that's okay." I said. "So, uh, could you remind me of your name again?"

The girl didn't seem to look offended. In fact, she didn't seem surprised at the question at all, as if I'd asked her before.

"I'm Bridgette." Bridgette said. "I am of the fifth cohort of the Roman army of the twelfth legion and I am your twenty-fifth official bodyguard. I am to make sure no harm comes to you and I am to remind you of all of your duties and of your daily schedule."

Oh." I said. "Um, you said you were my twenty-fifth bodyguard. Do I get a new one every day, or what?"

Bridgette's face remained expressionless. "No, praetor. You killed off your other bodyguards."

"Oh. Okay." I said. "I, uh, sometimes forget that."

"Understandable, praetor. I have been highly trained to come to your every need."

Nico came walking across the clearing with a girl following him. Nico looked miserable. I guess it was a good thing everyone steered clear of him. The girl had short blonde hair and an evil grin on her face.

Nico leaned towards me. "Oh my gods please help me. She won't leave me alone."

"Yeah, I know. Apparently they're our bodyguards."

Nico looked like he could die. "What? Oh, come on. Gods help me."

The girl introduced herself to my bodyguard.

"I'm Elida. And, you are?" she wrinkled her nose.

Bridgette glared at Elida. "I'm Bridgette. At least I have friends." 

"Says the girl who won't be alive much longer to have any friends." Elida said.

"All right, guys." I said. "Cut it out or I'll-

"Or he'll kill you." Nico said, resuming the hard stare of the other Nico.

"Apoligies, praetor." Bridgette and Elida said in unision.

"Having fun?" a voice said behind me.

"Thalia. Thank the gods." Nico said.

"I see you two are . . . happy with your bodyguards. I find my bodyguard to be quite acceptable."

She nodded towards the girl standing next to her. "This is Ana." Ana maintained her distance from Thalia. As you might have forgotten, Thalia was supposed to a mad lunatic.

"Praetor, Ambassador." Ana said.

I held out my hand and Ana shook it tentatively.

A Chinese boy with a baby-ish face ran up to us breathing hard. "Praetor, Reyna summons you to the principia for an emergency meeting."

Thalia and Nico looked at me with hard stares. I needed to make a decision. If I got too involved with this Camp, they could suspect something. On the other hand, it might be one of the only chances to learn information.

"Tell Reyna I will be there." I said. They guy bowed and ran off.

"Praetor?" Bridgette asked me.

"Let's go." I said.


	10. Decieved

Reyna's POV

I was getting impatient. The gods found it beneath their dignity to participate in a meeting, or even listen, so it was just going to be Percy and me filling everybody in.

At last, Percy came, followed by Annabeth and Nico. I frowned when Thalia followed in after them. Hopefully she didn't burst into a fit of shrieking laughter at this meeting.

Percy and Annabeth stood in front of me unsure of what to do. Again, I had a feeling about him. About both of them. Something was different. Something was wrong. I would have to ask them later.

I gestured to the empty chairs beside mine. Annabeth had a traditional chair next to Percy's. There was an empty chair next to mine, where Jason would have sat. I shook my head. I couldn't think about it now.

I stood up. "Romans. Greeks. The rumors are true. Demigods and gods from a parallel universe have come into ours. This is our rightful world, and we must protect it from them. Shall I declare war?"

The demigods pounded their weapons in approval. I allowed a small grin. "We shall give them their first taste of a real war. Starting with the execution of the prisoners."

The demigods erupted into cheering, and I couldn't help hearing the casual voice coming from the audience.

"Oh, gods. Someone stick a sword through me."

Thalia was slowly making her way towards the raised platform where I was. The cheering stopped and all of us gaped at her. We were looking from one Thalia to the other.

"Look at all you little pretty things cheering about." Thalia said. "I could laugh. No. I could _spit."_

She spat at the feet of the other Thalia at the foot of the stairs. That Thalia flinched. I slowly tried to rap my mind around what was happening.

"Who are you?"

"Who am I?" Thalia sneered. "You idiots. You've been deceived. She's not the real Thalia."

She pointed to the other Thalia.

"And he is not Percy Jackson, your praetor."

Everyone gasped. If this was some sort of trick, Thalia would go straight downstairs with the prisoners for her treachery and foolishness.

Percy slowly stood up."You know who I am, Thalia." His voice was tight.

Thalia sneered again. "I know your treacherous, hateful nature, but I don't see these things in you. Because they're in him."

Thalia pointed to someone in the audience, and they stood up and slowly pulled down their hood. It was Percy Jackson. I gasped, and so did everyone else. We were looking from one Percy to the other.

The Percy besides me looked at the other Percy with curiosity. So was Annabeth.

"This is a trick." Percy said.

"Oh, this is no trick." Thalia replied. "You really thought you could stop us from escaping?"

"Did you kill anyone?" Annabeth asked.

I gasped. "So you admit it."

Thalia nodded smugly. "It's part of this parallel universe. Something happened on the night of August 24th. We know that our counterparts exist. They are trying to take this world for their own."

"That is not true." Nico said.

"You are one of them?" I said. There could be many more counterparts in this camp. I knew what my job was.

I pointed to a small group of guards at the door. "Seize them."

They surged forward. Annabeth took out her knife, but Percy laid his hand on her arm.

"There are too many." he said.

Thalia sneered. "You bet there are."

The guards roughly took hold of Percy, Thalia, Nico, and Annabeth and shoved them downstairs at sword point.

"Which of you unfortunate souls stood watch this morning while our little counterparts decided to slip past us?" The real Nico asked.

A small group of Greeks looked at an unfortunate boy looking fearfully at Nico. Nico pulled out his sword and stared at it smugly.

"Come with me." he told him.

Percy looked at me and smiled. "Who's up for a game of Death Ball?"


	11. Rescue

Percy's POV

"So, I expect this is all part of your plan." Clarisse said as she watched us being shoved into a cell.

The guard I'd slapped earlier smiled as he pushed me into my cell.

Luke dangled his arms over the bars to our cell and looked at me with an eyebrow raised. I scowled at him.

The guards had confiscated all of our weapons, including my sword. It hadn't returned to my pocket, so I suspected they had given it to the gods so it wouldn't return to me.

Our hands were bound behind us. We each had a different lock to our bonds. We tried to cut them against a rusty nail, but they must have had magic in them, because they staid tight. Even as Luke slipped out of his cell and unlocked ours, it didn't help that we were tied up.

We all just sat there for maybe five minutes when Thalia said, "Who wants to see if they can throw a rock right in between the bars seeing as we can't do anything else. Four powerful demigods manage to get captured by Romans. I wonder whose gonna rescue us?"

"Maybe we should try and figure a way out of here?" Nico said. "I dunno, I'm just giving a suggestion."

"You won't have to." said a voice. My hand automatically went to my pocket, even though my pen wasn't there.

It was Bridgette and Elida. What in the name of Poseidon? They were leaning against the cell smiling. Thalia shook her head. Annabeth looked as if she could scream at them.

"What are you doing here?" Annabeth asked.

"You here to mock us?" Thalia asked.

"We're here to rescue you." Elida said proudly.

I didn't know if they were telling the truth or not. It was kind of hard not to believe them.

"You stole the keys from the guards? _All_ of them? We've been here for, maybe eight minutes." Thalia asked with her eyebrows raised.

"Of course we stole the keys." Elida said. "We're bodyguards, so nobody even counts us as existing. Reyna didn't even look at us in the principia."

"How did you steal the key?" Annabeth asked.

"Steerpike." She pointed to her pocket. "The fauns gave him to me."

I guessed she had an animal in there. It wasn't the strangest thing I'd heard of.

Bridgette turned the key to our cell door and it opened with a creak. We all froze and looked down the corridor.

Above us, we could hear the gods eating and laughing. It reminded me of the image I saw of the gods in the labyrinth."

"Hey." Clarisse said. "What about me?"

"Yeah, and us." said the Stoll brothers

Luke shook his head from the other cell. "I've gotten you all out of your bondages. You just have to wait for my signal until you can break out. We've got the element of surprise back on our side. You just have to wait."

"Awesome. I haven't been in a real battle since, forever." Bridgette said.

I looked at her warily. "Why are you helping us? I don't even really know you."

"You've cared enough to remember my name." Bridgette said. "If you hadn't come, I'd probably be dead by now."

"Yeah, whatever." Elida said. "Come on. We have to go."

"Is Ana not on our side?" Thalia asked.

"She is." Elida said. "She's waiting for us outside. She took care of the guards and is keeping watch. She decided it would be better if we came down here so we could, uh, try not to kill each other."

Thalia snorted.

We made our way down the long hall. We whispered to the other demigods, "Don't worry. We'll attack soon."

We reached the end of the eerie corridor.

"Ana." Elida whispered.

"What?"

"We need to get to the armory, and Percy needs to get to the shed where his sword is."

"They've resumed normal activities." Ana said. "Percy's in the woods playing Death Ball with his friends. I suspect the gods are above us in the principia."

"We can't sneak around the gods." Nico said.

That got me thinking to the time I had slipped out of Camp to save Annabeth and Mr. D caught me.

"No." I said. "But I bet we can get pretty far."


	12. Prison Break

Percy's POV

"What do we do?" Bridgette asked Ana.

"Wait, you're a daughter of Athena?" Annabeth asked.

Ana nodded, and Annabeth grinned.

"Let's start off with a plan like this." Annabeth said. "We distract the gods by having you, Bridgette, and Elida pretending to be fighting."

"That shouldn't be hard." I muttered.

"We sneak past the gods, and have Luke call the other demigods break through the tunnels they've been digging, so as not to disturb the gods. We'll start the battle with the demigods coming back from Death Ball, defeat them, and then bring our demigods back to our temporary camp at the hotel." Annabeth continued.

Ana nodded. "We'll have an all out battle. I could take a large group of demigods to the magical weapons shed along with Percy to get his sword and other weapons."

Annabeth nodded.

"Well, let's get to it." Elida said. "I can't wait."

Bridgette nodded. "I know. There's going to be wicked swords flying everywhere with blood splattering-

I pulled them aside. "Alright, newbies. I'll go tell Luke the plan. Go up there and distract the gods." Elida nodded.

"Don't worry. We got this." she said.

Ten minutes later . . .

We were outside of the principia.

"That was close." Annabeth said.

"Yeah." said Ana. "Good thing Dionysus was drunk."

"Where is the weapons shed?" I asked.

"This way." said Ana.

"The attack needs to start right now." Annabeth said.

"Right!" Elida said. She started running across the clearing, screaming with her bow in the air.

The demigods were coming back from the field, all dirtied up and laughing. They stopped when they saw Elida.

Annabeth looked like she might die. I probably looked the same. Bridgette and Ana looked as if this was to be expected.

"Come on!" Ana said to me.

Annabeth and Bridgette charged into battle behind Elida just as the once cell-confined demigods burst through the tunnels that they had made that went under the principia. I took a small group of demigods, and, led by Ana, we ran to the weapons shed.

Ana took a route across the bridge and behind the city.

"Hurry!" she said.

In between a small batch of trees was a broken down tool shed. Cobwebs hung about the roof and the whole thing was leaning so far out I thought it'd fall over right then and there.

"That can't be it." Clarisse grumbled behind me.

In the distance we could hear shouts and the clang of swords as Camp Jupiter clashed with our demigods.

Ana touched the handle to the shed and it swung inward.

"Whoa." I gasped.

The shed must've held magic, because the inside was fifty times what it looked like from the outside. Inside it held all kinds of magical weapons and gadgets.

Probably for the first time in her life, Clarisse looked as if she might faint. She picked up a magic machine gun and held it with reverence.

I ran across the room, throwing away gold nets and magic-powered bows to find my sword.

"Found it!" Ana said, holding up Riptide.

"Thanks." I said. "Everybody grab a few weapons and let's get back to the battle."

We all ran back around the city and across the bridge. We all dumped the weapons on the ground and yelled at the other demigods on our side to get better weapons than sharpened edges of wood they'd managed to scrounge in the prison.

The battle was unlike any I'd ever seen. Then again, they were all unlike. Demigods sought out their counterparts and began to duel. I saw Annabeth fight against the hideously barbaric Annabeth. Clarisse fought against Clarisse. Katie against Katie. Thalia against Thalia.

And then I saw someone who'd been waiting to fight me this whole time. Percy Jackson. When I finally stared him in the face I actually felt sorry for him. Even after the horrible things he'd done. He'd left mom and killed people left and right in order to become praetor. He'd also killed off his bodyguards. Yet there was something else that kept popping up in my mind. The picture I'd found in my drawer in my room. But he didn't care about that.

Our swords met in mid-air, and I felt a violent tremor run through my sword. Riptide clashed against Riptide. Tide against Tide, something that was never meant to be. He swung around, I blocked, and he kicked my feet from under me. Amidst all this fighting, I couldn't help feeling annoyed. That was the move I always made. I rolled over as he brought his sword down, got up and was ready to really fight. I pressed him back and slashed across his face so hard he fell down. I should've just killed him right there, but instead I waited for him to get back up.

Something happened then that I should have thought of ahead. Two of Camp Jupiter's demigods ran to the doors of the principia.

"Stop them!" I yelled.

"Stop them! Stop them!" Annabeth screamed. "They'll bring out the gods and all of us will be finished!"

Bridgette and Elida detached themselves from the battle and ran forward.

Bridgette ran forward and made a desperate attempt throwing her sword and missed. Elida drew back her bow and fired three arrows at one of the demigods, reached into her pocket, and threw a hedgehog at the other. That must be Steerpike. Steerpike flew threw the air and hit the other demigod in the middle of his face. The demigod who got shot took a desperate leap forward and threw himself onto the doors, pushing them open.

My heart stopped, and that was before the other Percy grabbed my sword and threw me to the ground. The air got cold, and all battles stopped.

Heavy boots thudded the marble ground of the principia and Jupiter himself stepped out and threw down his plate, making us all flinch. He gazed around the battle field.

"Who is the demigod that led this attack?"

"Me." I said. I'm sure I looked real heroic lying on the ground, so I stood up.

"I led the attack."

Jupiter glared at me. "Another Percy Jackson. A Son of Neptune."

"It's Poseidon, actually." said a voice. All heads turned, and there were the gods. The real gods. Our gods. Standing just inside the border of Camp Jupiter. Zeus stood in his armor, Hera right beside him. Apollo literally shone with his golden armor as he lifted his bow, and Ares brandished his spear. My father was there, too, grinning.

"You are not here by my authority. We did not allow you to come into our time. Therefore, we will fight you, until you are sent back into the place you came from." Zeus said, and he raised his lightning bolt.


	13. The Quest

Percy's POV

Jupiter growled and raised lightning of his own. The gods stood facing each other. It was probably the most amazing thing I'd ever seen.

That's when all Hades broke loose. The gods on our side waded through the field and pushed demigods aside so they could fight each other.

Zeus threw the bolt at Jupiter and sent him flying halfway across the city.

Apollo shot an arrow at the other Apollo. "You do _not _mess with my kids." he said.

Poseidon found Annabeth and I. "Percy, you have to go. We can only give you so much time. Find Gaea and stop her. Go on ahead to Alaska!"

Light was constantly blinding me. Zeus' lightning bolt lit up the whole valley. Artemis and Apollo went into combat against their counterparts.

"Come on!" Annabeth and I shouted to the other demigods. "We have to get out of here!"

"Luke!" Annabeth screamed. "Let's go!"

We started to fall back. My father was gaining the upper hand with Neptune. Demeter summoned trees from the woods that choked our enemies.

Bridgette and Ana had to grab the arms of Elida and pull her back from the battle.

"Go on!" shouted Apollo.

Zeus threw his lightning and a blinding light covered the whole valley.

The next thing I knew I was standing in that light. I don't know how much time passed. It was quiet. I didn't feel anything. I mean, I didn't feel cold, or hot. I was just there. I think I must have been standing. The sounds of battle were gone. There was no wind. I started to panic.

"Annabeth?" I called. I thought my voice echoed in the light.

"Nico? Thalia?"

In the distance I heard someone else shouting. Was it Annabeth? I started running. I don't know how far, because everything looked the same.

The shouting became louder, and I suddenly noticed that the light wasn't as bright. I could vaguely make out shapes.

After a couple of minutes, the light faded enough that I could see that I was standing on a hill. The birds were chirping. The wind ruffled my hair. I squinted my eyes and looked down the hill at the river.

"Percy?" I turned around, and there was Annabeth.

"What in Hades happened?" she asked.

"I have no idea." I said. "The gods must have transported us here. I wonder were the others are."

As if in answer, Thalia, Luke, and Nico came running up the hill. "Boy am I glad to see you." Thalia said.

"Hey, don't forget about us!" Bridgette yelled. Ana and Elida came running behind her.

"What was that?" Elida said. "I didn't even use up all my arrows."

"Why do you think Zeus sent us here?" Nico asked. "Where's everyone else?"

"I think . . ." I said, "I think Zeus just sent us on a quest."

"What?" Annabeth asked me.

"Poseidon said we have to stop Gaea. He said we have to go to Alaska." I replied.

Annabeth paled. "That's the land beyond the gods."

"Come on." I said. "Gaea's land, right? We'll have to travel by boat."

"Where are we going to find a boat?" Luke asked.

Ana smiled. "I have a friend who might help us." she said. "Come on."

She ran down to the river at the bottom of the hill.

"Lauryn." she called, staring at the water. "I know you're down there. We need help. Now."

The river bubbled, and a Nereid poked her head above the water. "What is it now?" she asked.

"Hey, you used to be the Nereid at Camp Jupiter." Bridgette said.

"Yeah. And?"

"Anyway." Ana said. "Can you help us get to Alaska?"

"Hmm . . . sure." Lauryn said. "One sec."

She disappeared into the water. "Um, you sure she didn't leave us?" I asked.

"Don't know." Ana replied.

Lauryn soon came back pulling a raft. It was a descent size to fit all of us.

"There." Lauryn said as she pulled it onto the rocks. Then she disappeared back into the water.

"Perfect." I said. "Everybody in."

We all clambered on board. Nico had barely sat down when I caused the raft to lurch into the water. He fell down and cursed at me.

Water constantly kept sloshing onto the raft. That was fine by me. I knew where the open water was. I could sense it.

Thalia and Nico looked miserable. They held on tightly. I slowed the raft down a little.

For some reason, my eyes were drawn to shore. I thought I saw something in the forest. The raft was going too fast for me to see properly.

The raft slowed down, and when I looked again, I saw a face in the earth: a horrifying, smiling face.

I looked away in time to witness our raft turning over.


	14. One by One

Thalia's POV

The raft turned over. I hate you Percy.

I sank down into the bottom of the fast moving river, frantically kicking my legs to try to surface. I sprayed water out of my mouth when I finally reached the surface and shouted, "Percy!"

"I didn't do it!" came his shout. "It's Gaea."

Suddenly I felt something lash around my ankle. "Percy!" I screamed. Everyone else was shouting, too, but Percy didn't answer. Something pulled me further under water, and through the dark water I saw Percy who was frantically twisting around. Roots were wrapped around him, and my eyes widened in surprise.

I was losing oxygen fast. The others had been pulled down under, too.

I had almost given up all hope when I saw a green light under the water.

It was the Nereid, Lauryn. She cut the roots around my legs and I frantically kicked up to the surface, splurging water. I had never bothered to learn how to swim. The water scared me, especially since I was the daughter of Zeus.

So it wasn't Percy's fault. I saw the raft floating aimlessly downstream, and disappear behind the waves. I found my bow and used it to anchor me to shore. I cursed. My mascara dripped down my face, and when Bridgette came out of the water, she screamed when she saw me. I scowled. This is exactly what Gaea had planned. An ambush, when we were completely caught off guard. I readied my bow and scanned the dark forest. I could sense _something._

Soon, everyone came ashore. We were completely unprepared when I heard the footsteps of something extremely large crashing through the forest.

"Maybe if they see you, it'll run away." Nico offered.

I growled. I felt heat on my face and smoke. I realized what was happening.

"On the ground!" I shouted.

Fire blew over out heads. Lauryn just had time to cry, "Eeep!" and duck her head before the fire surged over the river.

We all got up shakily. "Fire-breathing giant." I said. "I've fought these in Texas. They're not supposed to be this far north."

"Don't we get the worst of luck?" Percy said, frowning.

Of course. Being the son of the sea god I guess a fire-breathing giant wasn't his most favorite opponent.

I drew my bow and smiled. I would take care of this bad boy. The giant came crashing through the burnt forest and we all raised our heads.

"Don't worry, I've got this guys." I said.

I fired my bow point-blank at his face. The giant didn't even stop running at us.

My arrow bounced of him. He had a shield around him. I cursed and just had time to duck before the arrow soared over my head.

"Waste of a good arrow." I muttered.

The giant was almost upon us, now.

"Wait for it." Percy said.

I trusted Percy, but if we got killed I was going to kill him.

"Dive!" he said.

We all dove for cover, and the fire-breathing giant barreled straight past us, into the river.

The river steamed and boiled, and I worried for Lauryn's safety.

She appeared standing on the other shore with her arms crossed.

We all sighed in relief, and I shook my head at Percy. We all turned towards the woods. There was something bad about the place, but we had no choice but to travel through there. We had no raft. I grabbed my jacket that I had thrown on the ground when I had gotten out of the river, and turned towards my friends.

"Are you sure there's no other way to travel?" Ana asked.

I shook my head. "Through the woods we go."

That's when the hairs at the back of my neck rose. I heard a loud splash behind me. Elida yelped and grabbed for her arrows.

"No, don't!" I screamed. Elida shot an arrow at the giant and it ricocheted off of it.

The shield became visible as the arrow touched it, vibrating around the giant.

Too late, Elida realized her mistake and turned around, her hands on her head.

Percy growled and lifted the giant into the air with two giant watery hands from the river. He thrust the hands into the river and began to tear the giant apart, but in a searing column of heat, the giant disappeared. I cursed.

I turned to Elida. "Another waste of a good arrow." I said.

Elida smiled. "That's me. Just wanted to help." She clawed at her pocket. "Steerpike."

Ana and Bridgette screamed. Elida fell on her face, and arrow embedded deep in her back. Her arrow ricocheted off the giant and hit her.

Nico fell to his knees. "Steerpike." Elida called. Nico reached into her pocket and brought out a small hedgehog. "Always wanted one." Elida muttered. "The fauns were so kind to me, giving me Steerpike back at my home, Camp Jupiter. Go back to your home, all of you." she said.

Nico frowned. "What do you mean?"

Elida was exasperated, even near death. "Your home. You all don't belong here. What was the name? Camp Half-Blood. They need you. Find the home you left, will you?"

Nico swallowed. Elida closed her eyes. Percy and Annabeth looked stunned. No one said anything. I thought Elida still had a smile on her face.

"A strange dream I had last night." Nico said. We all turned and looked at him. This was the first time I had actually seen Nico close to tears. "I didn't want to tell you. I was afraid that . . ."

Percy slowly turned his head. "What did she say?"

Nico swallowed. "One by one,' she said, 'I'm going to pick you off one by one."


	15. A Son Betrayed

Nico's POV

We continued to travel north. I didn't say anything. I couldn't. Elida was my responsibility. I felt that since she was my former bodyguard, I had to protect her. Her death was my fault. I sighed.

We were somewhere in Canada, and it was definitely starting to get colder. Some days we ran into three, maybe four monsters. There were less of them in the north. I knew Gaea was messing with us, because whenever we strayed too far inland . . . well, we could all sense something. The forests seemed to grow darker, and colder. The ground seemed to become colder and seep through our shoes, touching our skin. Occasionally one of us would stop, claiming that we heard something, laughter, voices in the wind, but it would always be gone as quickly as it came. We were always on the lookout now that . . . now that Elida had died. Ana and Bridgette were quiet, too, but it was always Percy that kept pushing us on into the wilderness.

We stopped and made camp within site of the sea. Percy and Annabeth whispered amongst themselves, but other than that no one said a word. We were still mourning.

I put down my pack and rest my head against it. I ran my hands under the sand. The stars appeared, one by one. I knew the names of a lot of constellations. Bianca liked to show me her favorites.

I watched the shadows lengthen, and I called to them. My eyes strayed towards the land, where I saw a red light behind some bushes on the hill, flashing on and off. It must have been an airplane. I continued to stare at it. Something wasn't right. I swallowed. The red light wasn't moving.

I lifted my head and Percy frowned, turning towards me. "What's wrong?" he asked quietly, his voice rough with sleepiness.

"Look over there." I said and pointed. "The red light."

Percy frowned and raised his head. I could see his intense green eyes clearly in the darkness. They narrowed. "Oh." Percy said.

He reached over and shook Annabeth awake. "Guys," he whispered, his eyes still on the light, "Guys, wake up."

Ana and Bridgette looked up and with a nod from Percy, grabbed their weapons. I crouched next to Percy. Thalia grabbed her bow.

The thing in the bushes moved, so that I could now see two red lights, confirming my suspicious that they were eyes.

"Looks like a hellhound." Percy murmured.

"Yeah," Thalia said. "Let's wait for it to make its move."

Bridgette and Ana looked at it intensely, and I wondered sadly if they'd ever be their normal, joking selves again.

A massive dark shadow leaped out of the bushes and down the hill, blotting out my vision of the moon. Bridgette and Ana shrank back. Thalia growled.

In a split second, I couldn't see anything. I had no light without the moon. Then a split second later the thing landed around me. I heard a thump as massive paws stood on either side of me. Its head was leaning towards me, saliva dripping onto my shirt. Its glowing eyes seemed to see right through me.

"Cerberus?"

A glowing sword appeared out of his chest, and I stifled a sob. Cerberus fell to his side, and lay there, whimpering. Percy pulled his sword out, and I scrambled back against the rocks. The night was no longer peaceful.

"Dad," I choked. "Why?"


	16. Rain

Reyna's POV

It was spring. Jason never liked spring. He said was too much smells in the air. And then there was rain. It was raining hard when I took Jason to the temple of Bellona, my mother. I always went there alone, but this time I felt like he needed to be with me. I knew it was raining, but whenever I had a bad feeling I had to go there. I sat down cross-legged in front of my mother's statue. Jason hesitated but he sat down next to me. I tuned out the moaning of the wind. I prayed that Jason and I could govern the camp with the strength it needed.

I was lost in my thoughts when Jason said, "I'll be right back."

"Okay," I mumbled.

I must have dosed off. It was strange, but I didn't have any dreams like I expected. I sighed and opened my eyes. It was still dark and pouring rain outside. I'd never experienced this much rain. It took me awhile to remember that Jason had been with me. I looked around. He still hadn't come back. Had he left me here? No. He wouldn't do that.

"Jason?" I whispered.

No answer but the wind.

I slowly got up, my muscles aching. The shadows danced from the rain outside. For some reason I felt the need to try and make as little noise as possible.

"Jason?" I whispered, creeping along the cold stone columns at the side of the temple. I noticed it was freezing, and I began to shiver.

". . . no authority," I heard. It was Jason. I strained my ears to hear the rest, because it was terribly loud from the rain.

"This is what the Fates have planned for me." Jackson? What was he doing here? My lips curled into a sneer.

"You're crazy," Jason said. "Go back to the barracks."

I peeked behind my column just a few feet away. Jackson had his sword drawn. He had his back to me. Jason drew his sword. He looked over and saw me, but he didn't say anything. I knew that he wanted me to stay put. This was between him and Percy.

Jackson sneered. "Oh, I don't plan on staying in the barracks anymore. Once you're dead, the praetorship is mine for the taking."

My eyes widened. This could not be happening. The traitorous fool. I drew my dagger. I was going to stab him, but Jason moved first.

He swung his sword and Percy parried, and grabbed his arm. I couldn't see it at first, but ice began to creep up Jason's arm. He shivered.

"Little gift from my father," Jackson muttered. "Hope you enjoy it."

He stabbed Jason through the stomach. Jason made a strangled sound.

I gasped and choked, but I didn't make a sound. I put my hands to my mouth and sank to the floor. Jason. Jason. Jason. I closed my eyes tight, gasping for air.

Jackson opened the doors to the temple. Lightning crackled ahead, followed by thunder. The rain beat the side of the temple. Jupiter wouldn't care. The gods never cared about their children. They knew. The rain came rushing in like a river. It washed over Jason's body and his blood ran down the steps outside the temple.

Jackson whistled and his pegasus came clopping up the front steps, poking its head in. Jackson lifted Jason's body up and draped it over the pegasus. It dove up into the night. I would never know where Jason's body was.

I closed my eyes. I'll kill you Percy Jackson. One day, when you don't know it. I'll be there. One day when you least expect. I'll bide my time. I'll wait. You keep the praetorship. But one day, I will get my revenge.


	17. The Help of Friends

Percy's POV

Everything was going downhill. I pulled out my sword from Cerberus, my heart pounding. Nico put his head in the sand, moaning. We all gathered around.

The ground rumbled, and a small earthquake occurred. It wasn't my dad, I could tell. It was definitely Hades, and the evil Hades. I knew Hades wasn't the nicest person in the world, but he would never do this to his own son. I was reminded of the time when lightning struck Dr. Chase's car. Thalia was angry at her father, but it wasn't him.

Thalia put her hand on Nico's shoulder. He sniffed and closed his eyes. Eventually Nico slept, and I looked around at the group.

"From now on, we never lose sight of each other. The gods-the evil gods-are gonna do whatever it takes to stop us. We stick together. We're all gonna get out of this.

Bridgette, Thalia Ana nodded.

Steerpike wiggled in Bridgette's hand, as if the hedgehog knew what we said.

We all crawled onto our bed rolls, and slept.

I opened my eyes at dawn, the sea breeze waking me up. I frowned.

Luke was awake too, rolling up his bed roll.

"Did you have any dreams?" I asked him.

He took a while to tie his bed roll up, and then looked at me. "No. Not a single image, vision, nothing."

I mentioned this to Annabeth when she woke up.

"Maybe it's nothing," I said.

"Or maybe we're getting too far north, and they're powers get weaker each time they use them in the north."

"But what are they using their powers for?" I asked.

Annabeth looked down and made sure Bridgette and Ana were still asleep.

"They killed an innocent life," she said. "That's pretty powerful. It would weaken them."

I nodded. "They sent the giant to kill Elida."

As we traveled farther north, so did our hopes. It was nearly down to nothing.

We had been traveling on foot for about a week, when we unexpectedly met someone.

"You know, you're never completely without friends," a voice behind us said.

My friends and I drew our swords. We were so used to monster attacks.

The guy put up his hands. "My father said the same thing to you. Do you remember?"

I frowned. I remembered being on a train when Apollo visited and said the same thing. "Yeah," I said, recapping my sword. "You're Apollo's son."

He nodded. "I'm Chris."

Chris was a bit younger than me, with blonde hair and a very aloof look.

"My father didn't have enough energy to come here himself, so he sent me."

"Are the gods really that weak?" Luke asked.

"They don't have too much power up north." Chris paused. "I'm sorry about my sister's death."

"Elida was a daughter of Apollo," Ana said.

Chris nodded. "I know things seem hopeless, but in this world, you will always have friends. One of the best friends you can have is yourself."

Thalia frowned. "Is that supposed to have an underlying meaning?"

Chris raised his eyebrows and smiled. "You'll have to find that out for yourself."

His image flickered and Chris, son of Apollo, was gone.

Nico sniffed. "That was weird."

Ana nodded. "Tell me about it."

There was a loud screech behind us.

Bridgette sighed. "Just when I thought things were about to get better."

We all jogged along the shore line, keeping a low profile.

"_SCREEEECH!" _We all flinched. A huge eagle soared above us. There were riders on them with purple and orange shirts.

"The demigods from Camp Jupiter," Luke said

Annabeth wrinkled her nose and cursed in Ancient Greek. "They're trying to get to Alaska before we do."

Thalia groaned. "Well at this rate they'll be there within a day. We still have miles to go."

Ana and Bridgette shared a look. "Lauryn," they said.

We all stood at the shore calling Lauryn's name. It had been almost ten minutes and Lauryn still hadn't come.

Thalia sat down. "Well this is wonderful."

Lauryn poked her head above the water and huffed. "This land weakens my abilities but it never stops them. You lot look like Pluto. What happened? Where's Elida?"

She saw the look on all of our faces. "Oh."

"Look," I said. "We need to get to Alaska as fast as possible."

Lauryn turned her head. "Poseidon's worried about you, Percy. He's sent me to help you. There's an abandoned shipyard a few miles ahead. I'll bet you'll be able to find a good working boat there. Don't worry it's not just any abandoned shipyard. It's shrouded in Mist. You demigods shouldn't miss it. You should be able to get to Alaska pretty fast."

I smiled. "Thanks Lauryn."

Lauryn nodded and disappeared into the sea.

* * *

><p><strong>i know this is a slow chapter, but it leads up to faster ones. hope you like it!<strong>


	18. This isn't a Shipyard

Percy's POV

We traveled through mortal shipyards and small streets. We all kept pace. I shouldered my pack. My eyes strayed towards the woods to the side of the streets along the shore. There was something in there all right, the same thing that drew my eyes to shore in the raft. It made me shiver.

"There." Thalia said.

I squinted my eyes. "Just past that last dock there," she said.

There was a large, old building, covered in cobwebs. Beyond that I couldn't see because of the mist.

"That's gotta be it," Luke said.

I nodded and we headed inside. I opened the door with a loud creak. Inside it was full of cobwebs. I uncapped my sword to see better.

"Hello?" I said. No answer. There were huge pieces of a ship in the middle of the room. The tools were left about like the workers had just dropped their things and left. There were metal beams ahead, and the shadows stretched from one side of the room to the other.

"I don't like this," Annabeth said.

My friends fanned out behind me.

"Let's take a look around," I suggested.

I went over to the window and wiped it with my sleeve so that I could see better. There was nothing on the docks, no ships, nothing. They were all broken down. One of them was halfway sunk into the sea. Something wasn't right. I felt a cold wind on my neck, but when I turned around, no one was there.

There were blueprints on a large table, and I decided to look at that. I took one of them and the dirt came rushing down as I picked it up. I blew and a waft of dust blew into the air. The blueprint said: Design in Progress. It looked like a large cargo car for a train.

Under the picture in hasty writing read:

_Ship parts to be transported as soon as possible._

"Guys, this isn't a shipyard. It looks like…

"Percy," Annabeth said, her voice urgent. "Percy look at this."

She was pointing to a large sculpture at the side of the room. It looked like a lady standing on a pile of dirt with a piece of grain in her hand.

"That looks like…

"Gaea," Annabeth said. The writing was in Ancient Greek under the sculpture.

I looked back at the blueprint. "She was building a boat and transporting it somewhere."

"Alaska," Ana said. "It's on this map here. That's where the arrows are heading."

"Maybe she was trying to build an army." Bridgette said. "She needed to transport them with trains and boats."

"We should have never came here," Annabeth said, her voice dark.

"Get out. Everyone get out!" I yelled.

I turned around and Thalia screamed, "Percy!"

My foot caught a trip wire and something overhead snapped. I fell. I huge beam rushed from the roof towards my head. Annabeth takled me to the ground, and tripped over another wire. The ground started to rumble, and the beams overhead started falling.

"Luke!" Thalia yelled.

Luke fell and a beam fell on his legs. Ana and Bridgette pulled it off of him.

We all caught our breath as the rumbling stopped.

I stood, and it felt like I passed through a cobweb.

Bridgette talked me to the ground as knives whizzed by my head. I dropped to the ground and Bridgett fell on top of me.

"Bridgette?"

She fell over and there was a celestial bronze knife sticking out of her stomach.

"Oh gods…" Ana said.

"Annabeth, the medical bag," I said.

Annabeth shook her head.

Bridgette reached in her pocket and brought out Steerpike. She put it in Ana's hands.

"Hey, Percy," Bridgette said. "I'm proud to have been your friend and ally."

Her head fell back.

We all stood around her in shock.

Ana looked around angrily. "Lauryn has betrayed us."

"Why?" Luke asked. "She had nothing against us."

"No, she didn't." a raspy voice said.

We all spun around. There was a lady standing on top of the pieces of the ship. She was the same lady as the sculpture. We found her.

"No, my dears," she said. "I found you. Lauryn hasn't betrayed you. She led you to me."

"And that's supposed to be a good thing?" Thalia asked, her voice wavering.

"Don't you know?" Gaea asked. "In this world, I've done good. I help demigods. I lead attacks against the tyranny of the gods. Don't you understand? I'm on your side."

I shook my head and cursed in Ancient Greek at her. "You killed our friend. Leave us alone, and do us a favor, stay out of our quest."

Gaea shook her head. She looked sad and desperate. "I've been trying to help you. I sent the raft to Lauryn, I alerted the real good gods that you were in trouble at Camp Jupiter, so that they'd come. I've been with you this whole time. Listen, the trip wires, they weren't for you, they were for attacking monsters. I never meant for your friend to die."

"Stop playing games," Thalia said.

Gaea shook her head. She waved her hand and Bridgette transformed into a flower. A rose.

"Please," Gaea said. "I can transport you to Alaska. Let me help you."

All of my friends looked at me. If I said yes, she might kill all of us, but if I said no, we might have just lost our only chance at getting to Alaska in time.

To Be Continued . . .


	19. Hope

Thalia's POV

I stared at Percy with narrowed eyes. I went with whatever choice he made. Either choice could kill us all. If he accepted Gaea's offer to have her transport us to Alaska ahead of the Romans, then there was a chance we were walking into a trap. If he refused, then the Romans had a huge chance of beating us to Alaska. We didn't even know what awaited us at Alaksa. All we knew was that the gods told us to go there, and that the Romans were trying to get there.

Percy took a deep breath, and I tilted my head.

"I-I choose to go to Alaska. With your help."

Gaea smiled a warm, motherly smile, which freaked me out. For a second I thought she was going to zap us, but instead she waved her hand and everything went black.

I cursed. She's killed us, I thought. Then I heard a ringing in my ears. It was weird, I couldn't tell if my eyes were opened or closed. There was darkness surrounding me. It was sort of like what happened when the gods transported us from the battle. I could slowly see white patches in the darkness. The white patches grew until I was standing in the middle of an icy plain, with my friends standing around me.

We all took in an icy breath of air. Wind rolled ice over the snowy plane.

Percy frowned. "I've been here before."

Annabeth took a step forward. "She actually led us here."

Ana swayed, and collapsed. My eyes widened and we all ran towards her.

I felt her pulse. She was dead. I slammed my fist into the ground. Curse Gaea! How could we believe she would let us go so easily? How incredibly stupid. Gods of Olympus, we're doomed. We're all dying. What was happening?

Steerpike wiggled free from Ana's hand, and I took it, and put him in my pocket.

"This is far from over," said a deep voice.

We all turned. Standing in front of us was this huge giant. It was covered in dazzling jewels. He smiled.

"I shall destroy you."

I stood in front of my friends. "Try it, nugget brain."

The giant tilted his head, as if he thought I was amusing, which made me angrier.

"Thalia Grace. I've heard of your bold choices. I am Alconyeus."

I frowned. "The giant son of Gaea. "

"That's right. I see you know your history."

I spat at him. "Bring it on."

"Thalia." Luke warned.

From the coner of my eye, I saw Nico wrinkle his nose. I knew he thought I was being rash, but I was so sick of my friends dropping dead and evil, stupid monsters.

The giant threw his head back and laughed. "Very good, Thalia. You would have been amusing to me if I didn't have to destroy you. Unfortunately, only one of you will live before the day is over."

I raised an eyebrow. "And who might that be?"

Before he could answer, screeching sounded above us. It was so intense, we all dropped to the ground.

"The Romans!" Annabeth cried.

I shook my head. It was hard for me to believe we would make it out of this. How were any of us going to survive?

The Romans were getting closer. We were running out of time.

_I'm back_, said a voice in my head. I jumped. It was Chris, the Apollo guy.

His voice was sad. _The gods have sent me again. They feel your hopelessness. I come with a message_.

After seeing three of my friends die, meeting Gaea, and getting surrounded by my enemies, I didn't feel like listening to the advice of the gods.

_You tell the gods we're done with their help_, I thought

Chris spoke again. _They have no power in Alaska. Many of the gods have gone very weak trying to extend their power to help you. I am afraid this is the last message you will get from the gods._

_What's the message?_ Percy said in my head. Now that was weird.

I heard Chris took a deep breath.

_Many of you will die. This is the will of the Fates. But do not lose hope. All you have to do is close the rift between our universe and this universe. Even if one of you succeeds, all will be as it was before. Do not lose hope for your dead ones, or the dead ones to come._

I felt Chris's presence leave my head. I shivered. Chris was right. For a moment, I thought that if this were any other time, if we all weren't about to die, then I would probably hang out with him.

"Yes, the Romans arrive demigods!" Alconyeus said.

Percy looked at all of us. "If some of us die, then we will meet again in the other universe. It's all right. We won't all make it, but we'll see each other soon when we make things right."

The giant's ghost army poured out behind Alconyeus.

I nocked my bow. Percy raised her sword, Annabeth her knife, Luke his sword, Nico his. I knew I was probably going to die, but this wasn't a bad way to go. Hopefully Percy or Annabeth or someone survived to close the rift between two universes. My eyes got misty when I thought about our friends back at Camp Jupiter. Even if they one the battle, Alconyeus had probably sent more shades and monsters to attack the camp. If the gods were weak, then they wouldn't have enought power to protect our friends. They were probably dead. Reyna . . . _our _Reyna . . . she probably would have been my friend given time. Now she was most likely dead.

What now? I thought. Percy solved the answer by charging the giant. I almost wanted to roll my eyes, of course. But I couldn't help admiring his bravery.

I took care of some ghosts. My arrows didn't go though them. I nocked three arrows at a time, firing at foreheads. I swung my bow and took down a few more ghosts. Annabeth and Nico were right beside me. We pushed the army back behind a large icy gate. Nico absorbed the essence of some ghosts with his sword. Annabeth turned toward me. I never got the chance to hear what she was about to say, because she looked over my shoulder and her eyes widened in horror.

"Luke!" We turned around, leaving Nico with the ghosts, but we couldn't help watching. Luke was at the edge of the glacier. At one side of the glacier was the wide ocean, but Luke was standing on the other side, below him a long plain of ice. It was like déjà vu. Somehow, I knew what would happen next. Luke was being fended off by a couple of ghosts and some live Roman demigods. He couldn't fight both at the same time.

Luke looked toward us, and he understood what was going to happen to him. This time, Luke wasn't an evil brat about to be a host to a Titan Lord. This was Luke Castellan, a savior among demigods, keeping about him that strength wherever he went even thought the gods were evil. This was my friend, dying a hero's death for the second time.

Luke fell, the jagged ice spread out below him.


	20. Entering the Rift

Annabeth's POV

No, no, no, no. _No. _Gods, please no.

Luke and I were back on the balcony. He was telling me about the way everyone looked at him. What their eyes said. What had he said? He knew that he had died in the other universe. He knew about him turning evil. But he was _good. _This was _my _Luke, the Luke who wouldn't betray me, the Luke who would be a part of my family forever.

Luke was gone. The Roman demigods were gloating at the edge of the glacier. No. They were a mix of Roman and Greek demigods. Who were they? Who pushed Luke?

I could see familiar faces; Connor and Travis Stoll, and a guy who had red all around his lips. He was a Roman centurion. A started to charge them, but Thalia pulled me back. I turned around and looked at her full in the face, but her eyes were misty, her expression sad.

"Annabeth, don't. I'm sorry. Don't."

I turned to see Nico fending off the shades. I held my knife tight. I charged the shades and started dueling, striking down one after another.

"We have to find the rift!" Thalia shouted.

I nodded. "Any idea what it looks like?"

Thalia shook her head. "Don't know. I haven't exactly been in a parallel universe before!"

I pushed a shade over and stabbed him in the chest.

As I watched him dissolve, it hit me like a cold block of ice washed through me.

I was on the beach, having a great time watching the fireworks. The sand was warm but it felt good.

Suddenly, a wave of blue energy erupted a few feet from me. Two figures stepped out of the light. They were a boy and girl, both tall, and in regal golden Roman armor.

That's it! It was us. We must have stepped through the rift to warn our past selves about what was going on. I know now who those two people were who came to us on the beach.

I glanced at Percy, who was fighting nearest to me.

Those people on the beach were us.

But what would cause the rift to open? Gaea couldn't work that kind of power. Not even the gods could create a rift between two universes. Maybe the rift hadn't opened yet.

What time had we come to ourselves on the beach? It was night. Probably around 10:00.

Wonderful. We had to wait until 10:00 to close the rift. We didn't have enough time. I was already getting tired. I could tell my friends were tired, too.

What is about to happen that's going to give Gaea enough power to open a rift?

_It isn't about to happen, my dear. It has happened._

My spine stiffened. Gaea.

What . . . Luke. He had died for this quest, a good heart that had made a terrible sacrifice. A death that mirrored a death he was supposed to go through years ago back at Mount Othrys, but didn't. Now it was Gaea who was using the power of two parallel events and creating a parallel universe with them.

Luke . . . when he fell he had to have created a rift.

"Percy!" I shouted. He glanced over at me.

"The edge of the glacier!" I shouted.

Percy didn't ask questions. He expanded his hurricane and knocked away any enemies within thirty feet. I cut down some shades and ran over to him.

"Luke," I gasped. "He had to have created the rift!"

Percy nodded. We ran to the edge of the glacier and looked down.

Sure enough, at the bottom was a huge mass of blue light.

"We need to get down there," I said. "We have to warn ourselves. The beach. Do you remember?"

Percy's mouth opened and closed, but he nodded.

I glanced back at Thalia and Nico. They were about to get overrun, but we had to get to the bottom of the glacier.

"There's no way to the bottom." I said.

"Sorry," Percy told me.

I stared at him. "What?"

Percy grabbed me around my waist and hurled us both of the side of the glacier.

I screamed in Percy's ear. What? Couldn't he have given me a little warning? He'd done a lot of evil things to me, but _this_. Sooner or later I would formulate a plan to get him back. But first I had to pay attention to the rift.

The water hit me, but it didn't hurt. Percy's doing. Gods, we're in the middle of a battle and this is what he had to do to me.

Bubbles formed around us as we headed towards the surface. I caught a glimpse of Percy's black hair floating around his head before we broke the surface.

I spluttered water in Percy's face. I broke free of him and started swimming to shore.

He swam behind me and we both clambered onto the icy shore. My eyes scanned everything in front of me. The sun was setting behind the mountains. But what I really saw was the blue energy, forming and swirling with power. Luke's body was gone, probably absorbed by the pure energy of the thing. He was the one who caused it.

"We have to go," I said. "We have to warn ourselves about Gaea."

Percy nodded. "Are you ready? I mean . . . we might never make it out."

I nodded. But we had to try. I adjusted my Roman helmet and Percy adjusted his. If we saw ourselves back in the other universe, we would think we were crazy.

"Come on," I murmured. I didn't want Percy to come with me, because we might not even make it out. We might be stuck between universes forever. I wondered if he was worried about me, too.

We stepped into the rift and were absorbed in blue energy.

Time and space whirled around us. Whole galaxies passed us in the blink of an eye. Percy was right beside me.

Suddenly, we were side by side, standing in front of a large crowd. Camp Half-Blood. The sky was clear and beautiful. The world was as it should be, but it was about to be changed by Gaea. I hesitated, while Percy spoke.

"Hurry, this won't last much longer!"

"Listen!" I said. "Something has happened! It's Gaea who made all this mess! You have to stop it before it's too late!"

I was too worried to pay attention to the fact that Percy was standing next to me yet right in front of me, too.

The Percy in front of me stepped forward. "Who are you? What are you talking about?"

The two Percys looked at each other. I could sense the connection that passed between them. I looked at the other Annabeth, who shivered when I looked at her. Why did I look so afraid?

Percy replied, "I'm talking about your future. Something terrible has happened. We've done all we can. Now it's up to you to do your part."

Together, Percy and I stepped out of the light and onto the warm beach. We both stood warily, hoping we could get our message through to ourselves. Gaea had to be stopped.

"Go," Percy said. He looked at himself on the beach. The other Percy gulped. I smiled.

Percy and I turned and walked back into the rift.


	21. Know My Pain

Thalia's POV

Where were Annabeth and Percy? Where were they when we needed them? Whatever they were doing, it had better be important, because Nico and I were barely holding out.

I grabbed three arrows at a time and shot them at the shades. I swung my bow at demigods and kicked their feet from under them. I turned and found myself face to face with a Roman girl with brown curly hair and a cavalry sword.

I knew what to do. I brought out my two hinting knives and tried to get in close, looking for weak spots in her Roman armor. She gritted her teeth as she fought me. She had golden eyes that made me hesitate before bringing one of my knives across her arm. She ducked as I swung my other knife across her head, and stabbed me in the leg.

What? How did she-? No one crosses my guard like that. I slammed the butt of my knife on the side of her helmet and she collapsed.

I bent down and surveyed my leg wound. It had pierced my bone. I cursed. I was never expecting to get hurt.

Nico wasn't doing so well either. He was too tired to summon another skeleton warrior, and there were still at least a hundred more Romans and shades left.

Where were Percy and Annabeth?

Percy's POV

We were out of the rift, but it was still open. I could see space through it. If we didn't find a way to close the portal, it would suck the whole world into the rift, and our universes would collapse. Already Annabeth and I had to scramble from the ice that was breaking away and being pulled into the rift.

"We need to get back up there," Annabeth said. "They need our help."

I nodded. We ran along the side of the glacier to the steep icy hill that led up to the top.

We climbed slowly. I had to catch Annabeth's arm once when we slipped. We peered over the edge of the last ridge and surveyed the battlefield. Where were Thalia and Nico?

Annabeth and I scramble over the ridge and stepped onto the top of the glacier.

Annabeth touched my shoulder, and I followed her eyes. I could barely see them, but Nico and Thalia were completely surrounded by at least one hundred and fifty Roman and Greek soldiers. They were both sitting, completely exhausted. I couldn't tell if they were wounded.

"Jackson," said a quiet voice.

An eagle had landed not far from us, and a girl climbed off it. She had a smile that made me shiver, because her eyes glowed with rage, madness, and excitement.

"I've been waiting so long," she said. "I know what you did to Jason. I saw everything. You don't know how I've felt, watching you become praetor alongside me. I had to wait. But now I have you surrounded. I will kill you, just as you killed him. The Fates know what you deserve."

I didn't understand. What was she talking about.

Reyna. Not our Reyna. She walked towards me, and unsheathed her sword. She pointed it at Annabeth.

"You will know the pain of losing someone you love, just as I did."

I uncapped Riptide. I didn't want to hurt Reyna, but if we closed the rift, she at least she would be alive in the other world.

"Reyna, listen. I don't know why I did this to you, but I'm sorry. I'm sorry about . . . Jason."

Reyna shook her head, her jaw clenched.

"Annabeth, go," I said. "Somewhere safe."

Annabeth looked at me. This was almost the same situation we had at Mt. St. Helens, and that wasn't a good thing.

"Go!" I said. "Just go!"

I didn't see if Annabeth went or not, because Reyna swung her sword. She was a good fighter. I tried to get the feel of her Roman techniques. Surprisingly, I felt like I knew the Roman style, and I wasn't sure why.

I parried and ducked, trying to jab at her legs, but she sidestepped and tried to stab me while I was still crouched. I rolled and thrust my sword at her, but she parried and thrust at my stomach. Then she did something I didn't expect. She reached out and grabbed my arm as I tried to parry her move. I tried to pull away but it was like her hand was super glued to my arm. Ice started creeping up my arm.

Reyna smiled. "After you killed Jason, I used my sword to pick up the ice from the ground. The ice you used to kill him. You didn't know, but some of it broke of onto the ground. I've been keeping it in an Imperial gold jar, waiting for the right time to use it."

The ice was moving rapidly up my arm, causing it to go numb. I tried to control it, but it was no use.

"You father gave it to you to kill others," Reyna said. "How amusing that you are being killed by your father's own magic."

Riptide fell from my grasp. I looked into Reyna's eyes, and I knew I was going to die.


	22. The Hero

Annabeth's POV

I sat behind a huge pile of snow and ice, just outside the icy gates, hugging my legs to me. I closed my eyes. I was a daughter of Athena; I was NOT going to cry. I put my face in my arms. I doubt if anyone could see me. Percy had told me to go, and I went. If he died, it would be my fault. It had been several minutes.

After a while, I felt a pang in my gut. Tears started to form in my eyes. I knew he was dead. I started sobbing. Oh gods. Oh gods. After all we'd been together . . . after everything. This couldn't be the end. We couldn't do this without him. The universes would be destroyed. Everything would be gone without his help.

I couldn't get myself to look back at the camp. I didn't want to see. But I made myself do it.

I walked around the snow pile and through the gates, walking slowly. I couldn't hear anything. The Romans had left. So they just came here just so they could kill us? I guess they were following Gaea's orders. Little pieces of ice rolled across the plain. Just beside the barracks, I saw a figure on the ground. I gasped and put my hands to my mouth. I ran to him with my heart beating as if it were afraid it would stop.

I kneeled beside Percy and put my hands to his wound. Blood was welling up on his stomach and pooling onto the ground. He gasped and grabbed my hand.

"Annabeth . . ." he gulped.

"Don't talk . . ." I said. "I can get Thalia and Nico I'm sure they can bring someone to help."

"No, take . . . in my pocket . . ."

I frowned and shifted his armor so I could get to his pocket. I grabbed a wrinkled piece of paper and pulled it out. I was too worried about Percy to examine it.

Percy squeezed my hand. "Take this to the other Percy. Show it to him. It will remind him . . . there's still . . .

"Percy . . ." I whispered.

He looked at me with determined eyes. "If the other Percy helps you . . . you can close the rift, and return to our universe . . . I'll be there, waiting for you. I'll still be alive . . ."

I started to cry. I tried to be strong, but I couldn't help it.

Percy stared up at me and smiled. "Hey . . . ."

I stared into his eyes. I felt like I was looking into his soul. The fiery glow in his eyes faded.

I squeezed my eyes shut, and sobbed. I would fix this. I would separate the parallel universe. Once I did that, we would be back on the beach, as if none of this had ever happened, and Percy would be alive.

Strength surged into my limbs. I stood up and backed away from Percy, who was quickly starting to turn white as snow from the cold.

As I watched him, a bright light surged around him. He was in a clear coffin made of water, and there was no blood on him. He looked alive, except for the fact that he was pale and his lips were blue. The death of Poseidon's son had filled him with enough power to say goodbye. I reached for the coffin and my hand went through the water. I touched Percy's face, to be connected to him one last time in this world, and then I turned in search of the other Percy Jackson. He would help me, whether he wanted to or not.

Tears still freely fell, but I knew I had to keep going. Percy would do the same if I had died.

I glanced around at the icy landscape. Where were Thalia and Nico? Where they dead? No. No not them too. I needed someone real. Someone I could see to have proof that my world still existed. Not this living Hades of a place. They must have been taken prisoner and sent back to the Roman camp.

I walked out of the camp. My eyes stung from the cold. I shivered. What could I do? I could steal a car and go all the way back to the Roman camp. No. I needed them to come to me. I needed the other Percy to come here.

I couldn't Iris-message. Even Iris didn't have that kind of power in Alaska. I couldn't rely on Lauryn for help. She was the one that had led us into a trap.

It was getting light, and I realized I hadn't slept in two days. My mom told me once, that when you needed sleep, sleep. No matter the situation. _Not having enough sleep gets you nowhere, _my mom had said.

When I had traveled a good distance away from the glacier, just in case the enemy came back, I fell asleep.

I dreamed that Percy and I were lying on the beach. The Titan War had ended. Almost everyone had recovered from it.

"Why do you think monsters ignore us as kids?" Percy asked me.

I looked at him funny. He seldom popped up a really deep question like this.

"Well . . . we're not really a threat to them as a little kid."

"I know," Percy said, "but wouldn't it be easier to kill us before we grow up fighting them?"

I frowned. "Maybe . . . maybe they had it in them to show a little bit of mercy to us, as children."

Percy pursed his lips. "Yeah . . . but if they had at least that much mercy in them . . . couldn't anybody?"

I just smiled and splashed him with water. Percy got up and sent a wave after me.

"Hey!"

My dream shifted to the past. Elida had just died. The kid, the Apollo guy, Chris, was talking to us. I remember when he looked at me with those sad, clear eyes.

"I know things seem hopeless, but in this world, you will always have friends. One of the best friends you can have is yourself."

I woke up with a gasp. Oh my gods. It all made _sense. _Chris had told me that once of the best friends you could have is _yourself. _The other Annabeth. If I could get through to her, maybe she could get through to the other Percy. I got up.

_A parallel connection. _This was a parallel universe. So of course everything in it would be parallel. Luke fell off a cliff in the other universe, but he didn't die, so he died here. There had to be some sort of parallel connection with demigods from both universes. The other Annabeth couldn't exist if I didn't exist in the other world, so of course we had to have some kind of link between us.

I closed my eyes.

_Annabeth. It's me, _I thought.

I concentrated. Real faint but . . . someone was trying to talk to me.

_What . . .you . . .doing . . .? _Then clearer. _What are you doing? _The other Annabeth told me.

_Listen, _I thought. _There isn't much time. Tell your Percy that there is no once guarding the rift up here in Alaska. If Percy came here then he could control the rift and control both universes._

It was a lie, of course, but it was one way to get the other Percy to come to Alaska.

The other Annabeth stayed silent for a while.

_Are you trying to trick me? _she said.

_That's up to you to figure out, but if Percy does come, don't you want that opportunity for him to rule two worlds?_

_If this is a trick, _the other Annabeth thought to me, _then I will kill you myself. _

Then the other Annabeth broke the mental link. I hoped that meant she was going to tell the other Percy to get to Alaska.

I headed back towards the glacier. My stomach was rumbling from all the meals I missed, and I dug in my pocket and brought out a few crackers and ate them.

I got to the foot of the hill that led up to the glacier. When I got up to the top, I was cautious if any more Romans or Greeks had arrived. There was no one in site. Percy was still lying in his watery coffin, looking like he was asleep. The great hero. One of the greatest heroes ever.

I walked back and forth along the gates to camp. Now all I had to do was wait for the other Percy and Annabeth to arrive.

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><p><strong>hey guys i didn't mean for this to be a really long story. im gonna end it soon I promise. Please review!<strong>


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